Work Engagement:

A Key Concept of a Positive

Occupational Health Psychology?

Wilmar B. Schaufeli
Utrecht University
The Netherlands

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The Netherlands Utrecht

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 Utrecht University

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City of Utrecht

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 Topics

• The positive turn of Occupational Health

Psychology
• Work engagement
• What is it?
• How to understand it?
• How to enhance it?

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 The Janus-face of work

Labor: Animal laborans Opus: Homo faber

• Effort • Creativity
• Strain • Productivity
• Sacrifice • Challenge
• Blood, sweat & tears • Development

The traditional view

• Disease
• Disorder
• Damage
• Disability
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 Negative versus Positive

17:1
• 8,072 Anger • 851 Joy
• 57,800 Anxiety • 2,958 Happiness
• 70,856 Depression • 5,701 Satisfaction
Myers (2000)

• 5,361 Burnout 22:1 ● 261 Engagement

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 Typical topics in OHP
• Job insecurity
• Accidents
• Mobbing
• Aggression
• Musculoskeletal disorders
• Alcoholism
• Obesity
• Anti-social behavior
• Post-traumatic stress
• Burnout
disorder
• Cardiovascular disease
• Psychosomatic complaints
• Conflict
• Repetitive strain injury
• Discrimination
• Sickness absenteeism
• Drug abuse
• Sleep problems
• Emotional dissonance
• Turnover
• Harassment
• Violence
• Incivility
• Workaholism
• Injury
• Work-home interference
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 It’s time for a change…..

“Positive Psychology is the scientific study of optimal human

functioning. It aims to discover and promote the factors that
allow individuals and communities to thrive”
Martin Seligman (1999)

Positive Occupational Psychology is the scientific study of

optimal employee functioning. It aims to discover and promote
the factors that allow employees and organizations to thrive.

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 From burnout to engagement
A personal history

• After 10 years of burnout research (1989-1999)….

1990 1993 1998

• “Is that all there is?”

• “But what about those who thrive?”

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 How organizations change
From
• Stability
• Monoculture
● Early retirement
• Employee satisfaction
• Vertical hierarchy
• External supervision & control
• Dependence on organization
• Fixed schedules & patterns
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To
● Continuous change
● Diversity
● Late retirement
● Employee motivation
● Horizontal networks
● Self-control & empowerment
● Own responsibility (employability)
● Boundarylessness
 How jobs change

From To

• Physical demands ● Mental and emotional demands

● Less intensive work rhythm
• Separation from work & home
• Individual work
• Detailed job descriptions
• Life-time jobs
• Work experience
● Work intensification
● Work-home interference
● Team work
● Job crafting
● Precarious employment
● Innovation, creativity, learning

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 Conclusion
‘Psychologization’

For modern organizations, mental capital is of

increasing importance’. Therefore they do not need
a merely ‘healthy’ workforce but a motivated
workforce that is prepared ‘to go the extra mile’.

Organizations need engaged workers!

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Common interest or worlds apart ?

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What is engagement?
Concept and measurement

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 Employee engagement in business and academia

• 1.870.000 hits (in 0.28 sec.)

• All major consultancy firms are involved
• Fuzzy concept: old wine in new bottles
• Organizational commitment (affective and continuance)
• Extra-role behavior (discretionary effort)
• Claim: ‘Engagement drives business performance….’

• Only 261 hits…….

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 Definition

“ Work engagement is a positive,

affective-motivational state of
fulfillment that is characterized
by vigor, dedication, and
absorption ”
Schaufeli et al. (2001)

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 Engaged workers…

• .. are active agents

• .. believe in themselves
• .. generate their own positive feedback
• .. have values that match with the organization
• .. sometimes feel tired, but satisfied
• .. are no workaholics
Schaufeli et al. (2000)

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 Utrecht Work Engagement Scale

• Vigor
• “At my job I feel strong and vigorous”
• Dedication
• “I am enthusiastic about my work”
• Absorption
• “I get carried away by my work”

Available in 22 language versions from www.schaufeli.com

Schaufeli et al. (2002, 2006)

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 A taxonomy of employee well-being
ACTIVATION

WORK ENGAGED
ADDICTED

DISPLEASURE PLEASURE

BURNED-OUT SATISFIED

DEACTIVATION Adapted from Russell (2003)

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Engagement goes beyond mere job satisfaction

• Correlation between engagement and satisfaction: .53 (k=4, N=9712)

•
k N Satisfaction Engagement

Task performance 5 1175 .30 .39

Contextual performance 4 1139 .24 .43

• Engagement adds 19% unique variance in task performance -- after

controlling for job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational
commitment.
• Engagement adds 21% unique variance in contextual performance -- after
controlling for job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational
commitment.
Christian, Garza & Slaughter (2011)

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 Demographics of engagement
(N = 4,000 representative Dutch national sample)

• Weak positive relationship with age (r = .10)

• No systematic gender differences
• Differences between professions:
High in engagement: Low in engagement:
• entrepreneurs • blue-collar workers
• teachers • food processing
• managers • printers
• artists • police officers
• farmers • ICT-workers
• sales persons • home care staff
• nurses • retail workers
Smulders (2006)

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Engagement across the globe
(Total sample N = 76,437)

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How to understand work engagement?
Causes and consequences of work engagement

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 The Job Demands-Resources Model
Overload

Work-life bal. +
Job Burnout
demands
Conflict
-
-
Ect. - Personal and
Personal
organizational
resources
outcomes
Support +
+
Job control
Job Engagement
Feedback
resources +

Ect.

Schaufeli & Bakker (2004; 2009); Hakanen et.al. (2006, 2008); Korunka et al. (2009); Llorens et al (2006)

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 Job resources

Engagement is caused by…

• … job autonomy
• … social support and coaching
• … performance feedback
• … opportunities to learn and to develop
• … task variety
• … responsibility
• … transformational leaderschip
• … value fit*
• … organizational justice*

Challenging jobs produce engagement

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 Personal resources
Engagement is related to …
• … emotional stability
• … extraversion
• … conscientiousness
• … optimism
• … self-esteem (organization based)
• … achievement striving
• … self-efficacy
• … flexibility, adaptability
• … adaptive perfectionism (e.g. personal standards)

Engaged workers can draw upon various

personal resources

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 Health outcomes

Engagement is related to …
• … very low levels anxiety and depression
• … excellent perceived physical health
• … low levels of burnout
• … positive emotions
• … reactivity of the HPA (Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal) –axis
• … quick recovery after yesterday’s effort

Engaged workers enjoy good health

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 Performance

Motivational performance indicators…

• … contextual performance
• … intrinsic rather than extrinsic work motivation
• … personal initiative, proactive behavior
HR performance indicators…
• … frequency of sickness absenteeism
• … turnover
Economical performance indicators…
• … financial turnover
• … business unit performance (profitability, productivity, turnover, customer loyalty)

Engaged workers are motivated, present, and they pay off

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 Performance

Behavioral performance indicators…

• … academic performance (GPA)
• … quality of service as perceived by customers
• … self-reported medical errors
• … occupational injuries
• … manager’s rated effectiveness and job performance
• … innovativeness (personal and work-unit)

Engaged workers perform well

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 An upward ‘gain’ spiral ?

Job Work Job

Self-efficacy engagement
resources performance

Salanova et al. (2006, 2010); Llorens et al. (2007); Hakanen et al. (2008); Ouweneel et al. (in press)

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 Emotional contagion

- Social comparison
- Empathy
- Proximity
- Contact frequency

Other’s Own
engagement Emotional contagion engagement

Bakker et al.(2005, 2006); Bakker & Demerouti (2009)

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 Conclusion

Work engagement is related to job resources, personal resources,

health, and organizational outcomes in ways as predicted by the
Job-Demands Resources model.
Moreover, an upward gain spiral seems to exist, and work
engagement seems to be ‘contagious’.

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How to enhance work engagement?

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 Interventions

Treatment
Prevention
‘Amplition’

Ouweneel, Schaufeli & Le Blanc (2010)

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 Three pillars

• Largest Occupational Health Service in Holland

• Private business
• Serves 70,000 employers with 1.3 million employees
• 1,400 employees
• 50 group practices
• 380 occupational physicians
• 450 other health professonals

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 Three pillars

Treatment Prevention “Amplition”

Sickness absence

Engagement
Lifestyle

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 Three types of interventions

• Individual-based interventions
• Behavioral (e.g. acts of kindness, gratitude, share positive news)
• Cognitive (e.g. count one’s blessings, savoring, cultivate optimism)
• Motivational (e.g. set and pursue meaningful goals, find flow)

• Team-based interventions
• Participative, strengths-based action approach
• Foster transformational leadership
• Increase collective/team-efficacy

• Organization-based interventions
• Job (re)design: increase job resources
• Leadership training: use contagiousness principle
• Career development: keep the jobs challenging

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 Individual and group strategies

• Self-assessment and monitoring

• Use a self assessment tool periodically

• Goal setting and motivation

• Set and pursue challenging, SMART’ goals

• Increase positive emotions

• Commit acts of kindness, show gratitude,
share good news, savoring, etc.
http://www.hartenziel.nl/ecoaching

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Background E-coaching intervention

Job situation

Assignments
and exercises
• Goal setting
• Induce pos.
emotions

Time
Mastery Experiences Positive emotions

Self-
efficacy

Work engagement
Optimism
Resilience

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 The E-coaching intervention

• Content: 12 assignment and 10 brief behavioral experiments

• Time: 15-20 minutes per assignment; experiments are shorter
• Duration: 4 weeks
• Support:
• Coaches are available via internet for support
• Short instruction movies
• Keep personal blog and read that of others

• Pre-test and follow-up after three months

• Survey feedback

• Daily completion of the Motivation Monitor

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 Preliminary results

• Participants
• Coaching group (N = 86)
• Control group (N = 225)
• Mainly higher educated (80% college degree)
• Employment sectors education (20%), public administration (17%) health care (15%)

• Effects
• Increase in positive emotions
• Increase in self efficacy
• No increase in engagement, resilience and optimism

Wild, Ouweneel, Schaufeli & Le Blanc (submitted)

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Significant effects

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 10 ways to foster work engagement

1. Establish an optimal ‘fit’ between the abilities and needs of your employees and their work.
2. Stimulate on open dialogue about how your employee’s experience their work.
3. Invest in social leadership and not only in task oriented leadership.
4. Use the talents, strengths, and passions of your employees.
5. Stimulate a team climate where people support and respect each other.
6. Provide regular feedback; not only negative but also positive.
7. Provide meaningful jobs with variety and control.
8. Create trust by being open, consistent, and fair.
9. Have an open ear performance appraisals and take care that the job remains challenging.
10. Monitor employee’s engagement levels.

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 Final conclusion

It seems that work engagement is a promising

concept for establishing a truly occupational
health psychology

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Thank you for your attention !

More information
www.schaufeli.com

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 Examples of assignments

• Do-good day: commit acts of kindness at work

• Know your saboteur: write all undermining thoughts in a “black box” and
analyze these later

• Seek social support: ask for compliments and tips from a buddy
• I can have impact: what can you control at your work and what not?
• Drafting an action plan: what goals, what actions, what obstacles, what time?
• Look through pink glasses: write down what’s fun during the day
• Be curious and nosy: ask others what they (dis)like at work, etc.

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